


Jailbreak

by Thierrys



Category: Saiunkoku Monogatari
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-09 12:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/87667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thierrys/pseuds/Thierrys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Texas, 1873. A mysterious Easterner comes to town, and not all is right at the Blind Man's Saloon. Featuring outlaws, injuns, bounty hunters, and a daring escape.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jailbreak

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grey_damaskena](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=grey_damaskena).



Just outside of Waxahachie, Texas  
June 1873

Summer, sure as shootin', had brought swarms of ranch-hands to the town of Twin Rivers, and in particular to the Blind Man's saloon. The saloon doors hadn't stopped swinging all night, and Eigetsu, at his out-of-tune piano at the base of the stairs, was already on his third chorus of "Buffalo Gals." Behind the bar, Shuurei was practically shaking with anticipatory glee. "We can have sugar soon," she muttered, mentally revising calculations with every shot of scotch her blind father poured. "Make the repairs on the cart…You, are you going to drink that or stare at it?"

The young man, who had been sitting at the counter for the better part of an hour, looked up with a startled expression. "S-sorry," he stuttered, tossed back the whiskey and winced. At Shuurei's look, he weakly asked, "May I have another?"

"Certainly." May? Wherever that kid was from, he was certainly no ranch-hand. Maybe an Easterner, or the son of one of the owners, Shuurei mused, refilling the glass. She pushed it back to him across the counter, but he had turned away again, staring intently at the deputy sheriff three stools to the right. A small crowd, mainly farmers and saloon girls, had gathered around him as he described his latest news.

"…and tossed that dirty father-murdering coward in jail to rot!" Deputy Wilkins was shouting, with a triumphant shake of his beer mug that sent foam slopping over the sides. Shuurei caught her father's grin and rolled her eyes. It had been Wilkins' third re-telling of the capture of Shi Seien, the son of a wealthy farmer further North. Wilkins' audience was clearly impressed, with the men discussing the price of the bounty and one of the girls swooning. "Oh, how awful," she moaned, clasping the deputy's hand and leaning in, giving Wilkins a good look at the low cut of her gown. "Weren't you scared, deputy?"

Shuurei glanced back at the Easterner, expecting to see awe at the romance and danger of the Wild West. Instead he was scowling at Wilkins, and looked about to say something. As he opened his mouth, he caught Shuurei watching him, and abruptly shut it again and blushed.

"With all that talk, you'd think he caught Shi himself," Shuurei said dryly, feeling sorry for him.

The man raised his brows. "He's not the bounty hunter who brought Sei—Shi in?" He was quite handsome, Shuurei decided, even if his hair was too long even for a cowboy, let alone a ranch-owner. It wasn't too busy to spend some time in conversation. She raised her voice to be heard above the din and Eigetsu's raucous piano.

"No, that's just deputy Wilkins." She grabbed a rag tand started to wipe down the counter. "You can't see his tin star under all that fat, but it's there."

"Say," said one of the farmers at Wilkins' left, "Whatever happened to that Injun you arrested a couple of weeks ago? You hang 'im yet?"

"That sunovabitch?" Wilkins took a gulp of beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "Nope, word is they wanna have a go of him up in Fort Worth. Not that I'd mind having him for a bit of target practice." He aimed and shot a pretend pistol. "Bang! That'd show the sorry bastard."

"So you ain't gonna hang Shi either?" the saloon girl hanging onto Wilkins' shoulder asked.

"We certainly shall, m'dear," he said, patting her hand. "After what happened with Ran an' the Kid, I figure the sheriff would want to hang the man near as soon as he steps foot in the jail-house. Mind, he killed his pappy over further west, but I don't figure Judge Porter will care to bother with that paperwork."

"What did you mean about Ran and the Kid?" the young man in front of Shuurei asked, leaning closer.

Wilkins eyed him. "Easterner, huh?"

"Uhh, that's right," the youth said. Shuurei suspected he was lying. "My name is Shi-Sheehan, Ryuuki Sheehan. I was wondering what happened with Ran and the Kid."

Wilkins gave him a benevolent smile. "Well," he said patronizingly, "around these parts, Ran and Li are biiig criminals. But one time they pulled a job, a bank-robbery, just over in Alvarado. The posse chased 'em East for three days, until finally the two of 'em split up. Li went God knows where, and Ran went south-east. The posse out of Alvarado swung by here, gathered up some fresh men and fresh horses, and chased after Ran."

"They holed him up in a cabin, didn't they?" the farmer to Wilkins' left asked. "Heard they surrounded him with twenty men and smoked the bastard out."

"They set fire to the house?!" the saloon girl lounging at the counter asked in alarm.  
"Nope, nothing like that," the deputy reassured her. "It was way more smart – they smoked him out with bacon. Three days holed up in there without a bite to eat, and come breakfast on the fourth day, he threw his two guns out the cabin window and asked Alvarado's sheriff if he might have some of that bacon to spare."

The gathered crowd laughed, including Ryuuki. "But you know," Wilkins winced, "we shouldn't have celebrated so much as we did. Some folks got pretty rowdy, and there was this drunk that started singing his head off and shooting his gun in the air in the middle of the saloon!"  
Shuurei grimaced, making a mental note to repair the roof with the night's windfall.

Wilkins continued, "We tossed the drunk in the cell next to Ran's, thinking to let 'im sleep it off. We took his gun, but didn't even bother to check him for weapons or files. And when we woke up the next day, what do we find? The former deputy-sheriff, bound and gagged and locked in Ran's cell, and neither of the other two anywhere to be seen" He peered into his mug regretfully. "Two horses gone missing from the stables, and we never did find that key. Took a week for the locksmith to get Smith out of that jail."

"Aint you worried about Shi escaping too?" the farmer asked. Shuurei noticed Ryuuki's shoulders tense up.

"Well, this fellow's tricky, but he doesn't hold a candle to the Kid. And we're under sheriff's orders not to so much as say "Hello" to him until the rangers get here. He's near as rabid as that damn Injun. But you know, the sheriff was just so tickled that Shi was brought here to Twin Rivers, he told that bounty hunter to stay at the saloon all night, and send him the tab in the morning!"

The saloon girl at the counter began to ask him another question, but Shuurei's attention was pulled away. Ryuuki's face had reddened, and his slender fingers were clenching around his glass.

"Sir?" she asked, concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Oh – yes," he replied, placing his hands in his lap. He met her gaze. "Ma'am, do you know if the bounty hunter who brought Shi Seien in is in this saloon right now?"

"Oh, yes, upstairs." Ryuuki stood up quickly and adjusted the holster on his gun-belt. "What—" Shuurei started to say, but he was already walking towards the stairs. "Sir? Sir!"

Ryuuki vanished up the stairs with the pounding of boots against wood. Shuurei huffed, but didn't follow. He could pay for his drinks after his business upstairs, although she wondered what kind of shape he would be in after his meeting with that particular bounty hunter.

***

Ryuuki burst into the first room to see the broad back of a man, and the legs and pale blue hair of a woman. He squeaked and slammed the door.

A second later, the man opened the door again.

"Uhm," Ryuuki grimaced. "The bounty hunter—"

Wordlessly, the man pointed at the end of the hall, and slammed the door.

***

Ryuuki burst into the room at the end of the hall to see the broad back of the man, and the legs and hair of a woman. "I need to speak to—oh, oh sorry."

The couple turned to look at him.

"Is there something you want?" drawled a woman's voice, in a sultry New Orleans twang. Ryuuki glanced to his left, where a tall woman with straight black hair and a silk dressing gown was leaning, hands on hips.

Ryuuki turned back towards the man. "I need to speak to the bounty hunter who took down Shi Seien."

The woman spoke again. "Why don't you wait outside?" she asked, a smile playing across her lips.

Ryuuki stood his ground. "Right now," he said firmly, and was surprised to find a hand caressing his chest a second later.

"Outside," the woman repeated, and pushed him firmly out the door. It closed with a click.  
Ryuuki, once again out in the hall way, clenched his fists, and raised one to pound at the door. "I have a bone to pick with you, mister!" he yelled. "Please, just for a—" He could hear the bolt being dragged across the door.

"Well, have it your way," he muttered, and sad down cross-legged in front of the door. "But you aren't leaving until I have a word with you."

A moment later, door jerked open, and Ryuuki fell to the floor. He looked up to see the woman who had spoken gazing haughtily down at him. She had changed her robe for an expensive and frilly low-cut gown, the high-end cousin of what the saloon girls wore, and a wide-brimmed had with a curling feather. Her expression was no longer amused.

"There was something you wished to discuss with me?" she asked, stepping outs and pulling the door shut behind her.

Ryuuki pulled himself up. "I have to talk with the man in there."

The woman eyed him coolly. "You wanted the bounty hunter."

"That's right, ma'am."

"The one who took down Shi Seien."

"Yes'm."

The woman smirked. "Well, that would be me. My name's Kouchou, and no man I set my eye on has ever, ever escaped." Her eyes raked over Ryuuki, who gulped and stepped back. "How do you do?"

***

Shuurei, with a tray of empty glasses in one hand and a bottle of scotch in the other, slipped her way between the men crowded around the poker game and the ranch-hands wrapped around saloon girls. Returning to the bar, she glanced up the staircase anxiously. It had been nearly an hour since Ryuuki had run out on his bill, and she was beginning to worry he had slipped out the back door.

Her father squeezed her shoulder. "He'll be fine," he said reassuringly. "There are two guests in the back room. Maybe you should check on them."

"Aren't we too busy for that kind of work?" Shuurei muttered, recognizing the code, but obediently abandoned the unwashed glasses. She navigated her way back through the crowd and slipped down narrow hall, and paused outside the last room before the back door. Bending to the ground, she cupped her ear to the crack between the door and frame.

"I hope that is enough to insure the penalty my brother deserves," a man with a nasal, high-pitched voice was saying. Shuurei tilted her head, seeing a thick stack of bills on the table. A hand reached to scoop them up, but the crack in the doorway wasn't wide enough for Shuurei to see the other party.

"You've been more than generous, Mr. Shi," another man's voice replied. Shuurei stiffened as she recognized the voice of Thaddeus Porter, the county judge. "And it would be an outrage against justice for anything less than a hanging verdict. For the grieving family, there can be no greater comfort."

"Quite so," said the other man. "I'm afraid my youngest brother has taken the death of my father quite poorly. He refuses even to come out of his room."

"Unfortunate that he won't be able to testify," the judge replied blandly.

The other man smiled in return. "Isn't it?"

Shuurei eased the door shut, and slowly rose to her feet. Bribery and corruption? This was huge. She had to hand it to her father; he might be blind, but he could smell a rat from a mile off.

***

The cell doors slammed closed with a ringing scrape of metal against stone. Seien pulled himself up to a sitting position on the dirt floor, but before his eyes could adjust to the darkness of the cell, he felt warm fingers close around his throat.

"What good luck for me," whispered a heavily accented voice behind his ear. "They gave me somebody to play with." The fingers began to squeeze.

Seien slammed his head backwards into the attackers face. The other man let go with a muffled curse, but before he could back away, Seien drove a fist into his gut, and a knee into his groin.

The man dropped like a brick. "Jesus," he gasped, along with a series of words Seien didn't recognize. In the dark, he could only just make out the man's features – dark skin, jet black hair.

"I take it that's Comanche or some such you're spouting?" he said calmly, standing over the other man.

"Faugh," the man groaned. "You don't fight like a cowboy."

"I'm not," Seien agreed. He pressed his boot against the man's exposed neck. "I think you should tell me who you are, and what you're in here for, while I decide whether or not I prefer to share a room with someone who's breathing."

The man grimaced. "Ensei. And I didn't do anything wrong, I just killed the men who killed my family." He glared up at Seien. "Not my fault they were American soldiers."

Seien kicked the other man lightly and sat down on the cot. "I don't suppose they took that too kindly from an Indian."

Ensei sat up, rubbing his throat. "You don't suppose right." He gave Seien a challenging look. "And you? Expect me to think you don't have a problem sharing a cell with a breathing Indian?"

Seien met his look with slitted eyes. "I don't care whether you're red, white or purple. Touch me again, and I'll reconsider about breathing part."

Ensei grinned. "You have a deal, cowboy. Maybe I should be more worried about you."

Seien raised a brow. "You weren't already?"

Ensei wrinkled his nose. "Men who kill their own family – it's got to be something personal there. Unless you're innocent?"

"People have called me a lot of things." Seien turned away, looking at the wall across the cell. The stone there had been coarsely carved with letters L and I. "Innocent isn't one of them."

***

"I swear to you, he's innocent!" Ryuuki insisted.

"Keep your voice down," Kouchou hissed, dropping the last two feet down to the ground. They stood a short distance from the back door of the saloon, in front of a windowless side of the building.

Ryuuki wasn't certain on why she had insisted they crawl out the back window – from the second floor, no less – but supposed when one was a gorgeous rifle-toting prostitute, one got accustomed to doing things one's own way.

"I saw the whole thing," he continued. "A man dressed all in black came into my father's study from the outside window. The gun went off twice, and the man slipped out right after! He's the killer, not my brother."

"Fine," said Kouchou, adjusting her hat.

"What do you mean fine?" Ryuuki cried, but lowered his voice at Kouchou's look. "It's not fine. You've sent an innocent man to jail, and you're collecting money for it!"

Kouchou shrugged. "A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. And what exactly is it you expect me to do now?"

Ryuuki waved his hands in frustration. "Can't you, I don't know, tell the sheriff you made a mistake? Or take him back and demand a higher reward?" Kouchou looked at him pityingly, which he doubted was a good sign. He hesitated, and voiced a hope that had blossomed during the deputy's story at the inn. "Couldn't you help him escape?"

Kouchou sighed, and looked away. Ryuuki's heart fell. Kouchou placed a finger against her temple. "My money arrives tomorrow morning," she said, still looking away. "After that, I'm leaving this town and not looking back. No matter what happens."

Ryuuki wasn't sure how to respond. "Oh," he replied glumly.

Kouchou's brow furrowed. "No matter what happens," she repeated pointedly.

Ryuuki's eyes widened. "_Oh_," he said again.

At that moment, the back door opened, and the girl from the saloon (but clearly not a saloon girl, Ryuuki thought) stepped out, and quickly shut the door behind her.

"You," she said to Ryuuki in a whisper. "You're the youngest Shi brother, aren't you?"

Ryuuki froze up. "I'm afraid you're mistaken ma'am," he said haltingly. "My name's, uh, Shepard."

The girl tsked at him impatiently. "I heard you talking to her," she said, with an impatient nod towards Kouchou. "Your oldest brother's just inside there. He's bribing Judge Porter to hang your brother!"

"What?" Ryuuki was unable to believe what he was hearing. "You're wrong—"

"I'm not wrong. I heard the whole thing, and I bet Miss Kouchou did too."

Kouchou inclined her head, and Ryuuki suddenly realized that her room had been directly above where the bar-girl had said his brother was. "But he couldn't have—" But no. Nothing would have been easier for their oldest brother, who had despised Seien almost more than their father had doted upon him. "That was him," he said slowly, as the gears began to click into place.

"Or an assassin," Kouchou agreed. "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you."

Ryuuki turned back to her. "Won't you help?" he begged. "You brought him in, it's the least you could do—"

Kouchou cut him off with an impatient gesture. "Listen to me, boy. I don't owe anybody anything, least of all your brother." Her eyes softened, but only a little. "But I'll tell you this. The deputy is a fool, and greedy as a pig. The sheriff is the one you want to watch out for—the man has eyes in the back of his head."

Ryuuki nodded, unsure of what to say. The girl – what had the bartender called her? -- grasped his arm. "My father and I will do what we can to help," she said. Ryuuki gave her a surprised look, and she realized what she was doing. She let go of his arm and stammered. "I-I think my father knows your brother somehow. I'm not sure."

Ryuuki didn't think he was in a position to turn down any offers of assistance, particularly when they happened to be made by beautiful women. "Thank you," Ryuuki said, feeling the blood rise to his cheeks. "I'll pay you back however I can."

Shuurei rubbed her hands together, collecting her thoughts. "The sheriff should be out on rounds about now. Deputy Wilkins is in the sheriff's office now, same building where the temporary prisoners are kept."

Ryuuki nodded. "If we can get him out of there, I can pick the lock." He smiled weakly at her look of surprise. "The trouble is getting him out of there. If there are prisoners to guard, I don't think he'll be persuaded to leave very easily."

Shuurei smiled. "You don't know Deputy Wilkins. All you'd have to offer him was a…" she trailed off. Ryuuki looked at her inquiringly.

"That's it!" she said excitedly, pounding her fist into her hand. "Nothing easier!" Her face fell for a moment. "So much for the repairs to the roof. I owe you one, Li."

"What, now?" Ryuuki asked, bewildered.

"Ah, sorry!" Shuurei turned back to him. "Wilkins will be a piece of cake! All we have to do is smoke him out!"

"You want to set fire to the sheriff's office?!" Ryuuki gasped.

"No, nothing like that," Shuurei amended hastily. "We'll smoke him out…with bacon."

***

"Li," said Seien, staring at the wall of the cell. He could hear the deputy snoring in the next room.

"Huh?" asked Ensei eloquently, lounging half-asleep at the edge of the cot.

"I heard Li Kouyuu was once held in this jail. He helped his partner escape."

Ensei rubbed his eyes. "Don't suppose you know how he did it."

"No." Seien stared at the name scratched into the stone.

"Then what use are you?" Ensei complained, and Seien kicked him in the side.

***

Deputy Wilkins was awoken from a sound slumber at the sheriff's desk by a commotion outside. Cracking one eye open, then rising and ambling over to the window, he was astonished to see men pouring out of the homes and inns along the street, racing towards the Blind Man's Saloon.

"What the…hey, Miss Kou!" The saloon owner's daughter was strolling down the boardwalk, banging on a pot with a tin spoon. Hearing her name, she turned and approached the sheriff's office window.

"Evenin', Deputy Wilkins," she said cheerfully.

"Evenin', Miss Kou." Wilkins scratched his head and glanced briefly around for his hat. "Say, I don't suppose you could tell me what's the cause of all this ruckus."

"Oh, my father's giving away free drinks tonight," she explained."It's t'celebrate the upcoming hanging of that horrible criminal, Shi Seien. Everything's on the house!" Her smile faltered momentarily.

"What, now?" Wilkins was suddenly wide awake. "Damn it—beg pardon, ma'am. Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He dashed back to his desk, grabbed his hat, affixed the tin star to his vest and rushed out the door, heading for the saloon at a run.

Shuurei lifted her pot and spoon and resumed her clanging down the boardwalk, calling, "Free drinks! Everyone, celebrate tomorrow's hanging with free drinks at the Blind Man's saloon!" She just managed not to let her gaze wander towards Ryuuki, who was lurking in the shadows behind the sheriff's office.

***

"A hanging!" Ensei sat up in alarm. He shook Seien awake beside him. "Did you hear that? She said there's going to be a hanging tomorrow!"

Seien batted his hand away. "That's not something to be excited about."

"Excited?" Ensei slapped the back of Seien's head, and scooted away before Seien could react.

"Who's excited? They're going to hang one of us, you crazy—" he broke off , leaping up to shake the bars of the cell door. "Hey!" he shouted. "Who's getting hanged? What's going on?"

There was no answer, not even a shout to quiet down. Seien strained his ears, but the deputy had even stopped snoring. Ensei swore. "Drinks! Drinks and a hanging. There's going to be a lynch mob before the night is done. We're dead meat!" He turned to Seien. "The least you could do is properly wake up."

Seien shrugged. Ensei began to pace from the door to the wall and back, muttering a litany of words that were neither English nor particularly pleasant sounding. Each word was punctuated by a kick the dirt floor. Seien was about to suggest that Ensei give it a rest, when something on the floor caught his eye.

Ensei stopped pacing and turned to stare when Seien bent over laughing. "What did I do to deserve this?" He whispered to himself. "I'm stuck in a tiny room with a crazy man."

Seien abruptly stopped laughing and looked up. "Ensei," he said. "What do you know about Li Kouyuu?"

"We are about to be HANGED by the NECK until DEAD and you are asking me about celebrity gossip?!"

Seien met Ensei's glare calmly. "Li Kouyuu learned everything he knows from Silky Sloane."

"The famous gambler. I'd heard that." Ensei threaded his fingers through his hair and pulled at it. "And?"

Seien rose from the cot and knelt beside the wall, leaning forward to trace the letters engraved into the stone. "Something my father once taught me about gamblers," he said, and ran his fingers down the wall to the floor, to where Ensei had worn tread-marks into the dirt. He spit into the dirt and began to dig, scrabbling at the earth until his hands were black and bleeding.

Ensei stood over him, clearly not wanting to get too close, watching bemusedly. "What the hell are you doing?"

A hint of a smile ran over Seien's face. He grabbed a large fistful of dirt, and held it out to Ensei.

"The thing about gamblers is," he said, "they never leave anything to chance."

In his hand was a bronze skeleton key.

***

"What is that commotion?" the eldest Shi brother asked irritably, watching the throng of people crowding into the saloon as he tied his horse to the hitching post in front of the sheriff's office.

Kouchou shrugged at him. "Probably just some cowboys having a fight," she said carelessly, dismounting beside him. She slapped the reins against the post without tying them, and ran her fingers along his arm. He turned to her, and she leaned in to give him a better view.

"You were so kind to take me on a night-time ride," she purred. "I know you must think me awfully forward to go right up and ask you like that."

"Not at all." Shi had an irritating smirk that Kouchou would have liked to wipe off. "I can tell that you're a different class of woman than the rest who frequent that…establishment."

Kouchou gave a brief smile. "You could say that, couldn't you?" She tilted her head back, and nodded towards the building. "I suppose it's only fair of me to return the favor…"

"The sheriff's office?" he frowned.

She cocked her head. "It's simple, darling. We start in the back, and work our way forward."

The smirk was back. "I like the way you think."

Kouchou, through long practice, managed not to grimace.

***

Ensei took in a deep breath upon stepping outside of the cell. "The smell of freedom!" he exclaimed, as Seien stepped out behind him. Seien eased the cell door shut and pocketed the key.

"We're not free yet," he muttered. The sheriff's office was completely dark, with even the gas-light out. Through the window, he could see two horses hitched to the post at the boardwalk.

"What are you waiting for?" Ensei gleefully surged forward, reaching for the doorknob. A loud, unmistakable click of stopped him in his tracks. Seien froze.

"Hands in the air. Turn around slowly," a gruff voice ordered.

Seien and Ensei carefully obeyed. In the corner of the office stood the sheriff. His white beard and the glint of moonlight on the barrel of his pistol were almost the only things visible in the blackness.

"Nobody," said Sheriff Rou, "escapes on my watch."

Seien's heart nearly stopped at the sound of another click. It skipped a beat when his brother stepped out of the shadows, gun pointed at Rou. "You will let them go," Ryuuki said, and his voice didn't waver.

To his credit, Rou didn't flinch. "Don't do this, son," he warned. Ryuuki's eyes flicked to Seien, but only for a moment.

"Ryuuki…" Seien was frozen to the spot, unable to comprehend the sight of his little brother stepping forward to press the muzzle of a gun against the sheriff's temple. Ensei cracked open the front door.

"The coast is clear," he said urgently. "We have to hurry." Seien hesitated. Ensei slipped out the door, and could be heard muttering to the horses.

"Goodbye, Brother." Ryuuki's voice was sad. His eyes were focused on Rou. Seien took a few halting steps back, then turned and ran through the open door.

***

The eldest Shi brother let go of Kouchou long enough to undo his belt and slide his pants down to his ankles. For Kouchou, it was more than long enough to hike up her velvet skirt and petticoats, and reach for the tiny holster sewn onto her garter belt.

Shi looked up to see the muzzle of a tiny .40 derringer staring him back in the face.

"Now I suggest," drawled Kouchou, "that you not make a sound."

***

The next morning:

"Why, sheriff, you are ever so kind," gushed Kouchou, counting through the sheaf of bills he had given her.

Sheriff Rou, pressing an ice-pack to the large bump swelling on the back of his head, harrumphed. "Time was, if a bounty hunter expected to be paid, he'd make sure the bounty stayed caught."

"Not really my business," answered Kouchou with a smile, folding the $500 into her pocketbook. "Although I hear a young gentleman went missing last night. Any reward for his capture?"

"If you mean the older brother, not a penny," the sheriff grumbled. "Damn fool'll probably be crawling back here, with a throwed shoe and a headache."

Kouchou gave herself a private smile. "I was thinking of the one who gave you that knot."

"The younger brother." Sheriff Rou scratched his chin. "Aiding and abetting a criminal is worth a lengthy stay in jail, but I don't know that it's worth a bounty. Didn't even get a good look at the kid, and there're no photographs of 'im that I know of."

"Well, I'll keep an ear out to see if you change your mind," said Kouchou sollicitously, and took her leave.

Back on the boardwalk, she returned to the front of the hotel where the stage-coach stopped. The porter she had tipped to carry her bags was struggling to balance a tall stack of hat-boxes. As Kouchou watched the teetering pile with amusement, someone bumped into her. She turned to see Shuurei, just coming out of the general store, arms so full of groceries she couldn't see where she was going.

"Oh, sorry, Miss Kouchou," Shuurei apologized, and saw the towering stack of luggage and hat-boxes. "Are you leaving so soon? You only just got back."

"I have some business up in Denver," Kouchou answered vaguely, glancing back towards the sheriff's office. Turning back to Shuurei, she gave the sacks of groceries an apprising look. "Looks like you did well for yourselves last night. And here I thought last night's event would have run you out of house and home."

Shuurei shifted. "We came into a, ah, an unexpected source of money," she replied, readjusting her grip.

Kouchou nodded sagely. "That explains why you're buying enough food for three, now." She grinned as Shuurei reddened. "Just be sure you get him a hair-cut."

The stage-coach was loaded and ready to go when Kouchou saw movement from the yard behind the sheriff's office. "Driver," she called up from her position inside the coach. "Is there any further need for delay?"

"No ma'am," the driver answered, as the man riding shotgun hauled himself up beside him. With a slap of the reins, the driver called, "Hyah!" and the coach pulled away from the hotel.

As the coach passed the sheriff's office, Kouchou leaned out the window and blew a kiss to the half-naked man emerging from behind.

***

_Three days later_

They were somewhere in the area of the Oklahoma border, but Ensei wasn't sure if they had crossed yet. He turned to ask Seien, and realized the other horse had stopped several yards back. Seien was staring back the way they had come.

"Think he'll be okay?" Ensei asked quietly.

Seien didn't answer, or maybe just not aloud. Instead, he gave Ensei a considering look. "Got anywhere to go?"

Ensei was surprised. "No," he said, after a moment's thought. "Don't suppose I do."

Seien was silent. Then he asked, "Ever done any bounty-hunting?"

Ensei cocked his head. "Got anyone in mind?"

Seien reached unhurriedly into the pocket of his vest and produced a neatly folded sheet of paper, which he handed to Ensei. At Ensei's look, he shrugged. "I've been thinking we might ought to pay these two a visit."

Ensei unfolded the paper and turned it over. It read:

WANTED

LI "THE KID" KOUYUU

AND

RAN SHUUEI

DEAD OR ALIVE

REWARD $10000

 

Ensei folded it back up and returned it to Seien. He leaned back in the saddle and stretched. "Well," he said eventually, "I suppose we have to start somewhere."

The End


End file.
